The UK almost made it.
We were nearly there.
Then, Tony Blair became PM and the first thing he did was call his mate Bill Gates, and that was that. I recall there being quite a ruckus because he was WAY too close to Microsoft, and it became clear that MS was thus embedding itself as fast as possible in UK government systems.
Around the same time (I think, it's a while back), UK schools were warned by all and sundry that no, Microsoft was not benevolent towards education, it was merely following an entrapment process to get everyone to use MS products - that edu discount would not last. But no, those dumb tech people could not possible have a clue. Lo and behold, once the lock in was complete the educational discount vanished and a lot of educational wailing was heard. By giving back a tiny slice of those proceeds one Bill Gates got his name on some University building. You could say he got a knighthood for knowing how to milk UK's educational budget.
It's been downhill ever since.
